From Manteo to the Mountains

The difference between Manteo in the Outer Banks (OBX) and the Brevard area of North Carolina is night and day.  The OBX is flat and coastal. It is likely one of the flattest areas in the US.  Average elevation is 3 feet above sea level!  Comparatively, the Brevard area has some of the highest mountains east of the Mississippi, many rising to over 6,000 feet.  Well, they do have tourism in common I suppose.  Welcome to your geography lesson for the day.  What is cool is that there is a sign in Manteo that says Murphy NC – 543 miles.  NC is quite a diverse state and larger than most think. 

So, what does this geography lesson have to do with ultra endurance sports?  If you are planning to run any of the big races in western North Carolina and you just happen to live in Manteo, it means everything.  Last Spring I decided to sign up for the Looking Glass 100 km race near Brevard.  It is known as a tough race that traverses some of the highest points on the east coast.  Having done Quest for the Crest 50 km last year, I knew how dauting this area could be.  This was arguably one of the tougher 50k’s out there owing to the exceptionally steep climbs and technical terrain.  Challenging enough to go back to this area, but even more so as I knew there would be minimal time for me to get out to the mountains.  So training at 3 feet sea level is what it would be – we make the best of what we have.   Oh yeah, there are no technical trails here either, so it is mainly road running and flat road running at that – my favorite.  I know somebody here in the OBX is going to say “but Nags Head Woods trails are there” – I wish I could consider this complex hilly or technical but comparatively they are neither.   Based on our event schedule, I knew I  would finish running a super flat marathon at Erie, PA in early September and I would have basically a month and a half to transform my flat lander legs into mountain climbing powerhouses.  Knowing I would have no time to visit the mountains I decided to prove my theory that you can run tough races on rugged terrain without ever leaving home. 

If you read my recent article on Looking Glass 100 km, “10 Hard Miles “at https://www.adventureupcoaching.com/post/10-hard-miles - you will know this was a tough event for me.  However, I did finish and there are a lot of people who live and train in the mountains who did not.  I might also mention, I turned 60 during this training cycle so if I can do it – everyone can!  So, how does one go about preparing for running a mountain race while living on the beach?

There are tons of articles on how to train for the mountains if you don’t live there.  I used my own experiences doing some very tough mountain races as my foundation for a plan along with tons of research.  One disclaimer – running up to 6000 feet does not have the altitude issues that you see out west and preparing to run in those conditions has a different component.  Preparing for altitude is a different challenge.  Fortunately, I did not have to deal with that.  Here is how I approached this event, and it may help you if you have a mountain race and you are not able to train on similar terrain.

Everything an Opportunity.  When you live in a flat area and need to train for hills, you have to treat any chance to go up and downhill as an opportunity.  Stairs?  Absolutely.  What this equates to is knowing your area and seeking those opportunities wherever you can find them.   Here in the OBX there are not too many hills obviously, but there are a few.  Doing repeats on these, doing the same trail sections over and over, and doing up/down sequences at the Wright Brothers Memorial all were standard fare.  The Memorial has a whopping 90 feet of gain for each ascent!   After hitting every known hill in the OBX multiple times, my training culminated with a 15 mile up and down sequence at the Memorial.  I may have overdone this a bit, and my left knee keeps reminding me of this.  It does not quite replicate doing mountains on technical terrain, but it is what we have.  This is a blueprint for anyone, wherever you are located.  You may not have an optimal place to train but you have something.  Is it boring? No question, but it also builds mental resilience, and we all know what that is worth.   Through a little bit of creativity, we can at least challenge our bodies enough to get some of the adaptation we need to perform in the mountains.  Of note, my last mountain adventure was in April when we hiked the Foothills Trail (76 miles) in South Carolina – six months before this event.  That is kind of a sad commentary of how busy it was this year!  No mountains for six months is unheard of for me but life sometimes gets in the way.  What this conveys is that we can succeed in the mountains, even if we have not seen them for months. 

Muscular Endurance.  Knowing that I would not have the long technical climbs to replicate race conditions, I built some circuits to do at the local gym.  These generally included some intervals on the Ski Erg machine, push-ups, pull-ups, squats, all types of lunges, and the best exercise (to me) step-ups with and without weight. My goal – to be in the best overall shape possible.  I would do these in different orders, different quantities, etc.  My goal was to do this three times a week, and I think it really helped overall.  If you do not have the long climbs to rely on to prepare for races you can replicate the endurance requirements by integrating these types of sessions into your week.  I did try some treadmill and elliptical, but the machines worked on and off, so it was hard to build a plan with that inconsistency. I have always run fewer miles in training than many people I know who do these events and I credit succeeding despite this to integrating these sessions into my training.  Does it replace running and power hiking?  No, but it compliments it significantly.

Core and Upper Body strength.   Although I mentioned this before, I wanted to emphasize something here.  Core and upper body strength can be overlooked by many.  When my legs were compromised by the several falls in the race, I was able to lean on my poles a bit more – literally.  Sprained ankles, twisted knees, and contusions will do that to you!  I have always believed in this type of training and the benefit of it has been reinforced many times over the years.  The point is don’t overlook upper body and core strength.  One of the key issues for ultras, especially on rugged terrain, is durability or the ability to be resilient over time.  Being in good overall shape helps ensure your body and mind can cope with major issues when they occur – and they will.

Plyometric Drills.  These types of drills can be a huge compliment to your training as well.  A couple of cautions though.  You need to start slowly.  You will feel like an uncoordinated child when you first do them.  Yes, you might also look a bit ridiculous to others in the gym, but so what.   Do you want to look good or be successful?   Keep at it, and it will strengthen your ankles, knees, and hips significantly.  It will also make you more capable of dealing with the dynamic changes in direction and the immense force caused by running up and downhill in steep technical terrain.  One other caution is that more is not better.  Do this at most two times per week.  I found, at least for me, that this is enough to build the agility and strength needed to compliment my other training events.  There are tons of these videos online and there are literally dozens of options.  

Power Hiking for the win.  Many folks who do these types of events simply do not know how to walk fast.  The ability to move quickly while walking and transitioning from running to walking is critical, especially for longer races where you know you will be walking – often more so than running.  This is not something that you can just do – you have to train to do this.  Most simply do not want to spend the time walking fast at the expense of running.  Many people slow significantly when they transition from running to walking, maybe thinking it is a break.  I approached this differently and have been determined to make power hiking a superpower.   In this training block, I actually added in sessions that included long fast hikes, culminating in a 10-mile speed walk a few weeks out from my event.  It was a deliberate effort to walk faster, not simply a break during training.  Guess what?  Walking fast is hard if you are doing it right!  The reward was significant, as many of the long climbs were on terrain where it simply was not possible to run – a common occurrence in mountain events.  When I was unable to run efficiently (or at all) due to the injuries sustained by falling, I was able to leverage this superpower to keep moving and finish.  For the extreme longer events (more than 100 miles) this becomes even more essential.  It also pays off significantly in other events as well.  Again, I have seen many runners who just do not think this is important when it is a critical part of long race execution.

What went right.  Overall, the training worked well.  When looking at ultra events your training generally comes down to overall conditioning, endurance, and durability.  Then there are the specific race format and environmental factors.  My overall conditioning was strong coming out of a marathon training program with lots of speed work and threshold runs.  My endurance was also strong, and I credit this to the marathon training program, the Erie Marathon, and my back-to-back long run training sessions leading up to the race.  My preparation for the environmental factors of this race was solid, but without any time in the mountains, I struggled a bit on the technical terrain when I was injured and tired.  The overall work I did with power hiking and strength training likely saved me and empowered me to finish, despite all the injuries sustained in some major falls.  Back to durability – when one thing stopped working, I was able to fall back on something else. Overall, I think combining all of these different but complimentary training lines of effort proved you can go from the flat lands to the mountains and succeed.

What went wrong. Ok, I know this is shocking to most who know me, but I overdid it.  Knowing I was not going to get the mountain miles I wanted to I designed a mini-training camp here in the OBX.  This entailed doing 15 miles up and down the monument on day one, 14 miles on the local Nags Head Woods trail on day two, and speed walking 10 miles on day three.  The combination of these, along with the gym, caused a few overuse injuries.  These would have a big impact on the race, so looking back I should have backed off this a bit.   I also overdid the plyometrics and looking back, I should have only done this twice a week at most.  Again, I can give myself a bit of grace by knowing I was trying really hard to replicate mountains on the beaches of the OBX.  My respect for the mountains essentially created an environment of “it’s never too much” when we all know it is possible to overtrain.  Ideally, if I did this again, I would find a treadmill that elevates up and down (or a quality elliptical trainer) - where we live the machine was broken most of the time!  This would have helped significantly but we have to make do with what we have.  Regardless, I learned from it and will apply to future events and certainly to those I work with as a coach. 

Conclusions.  The bottom line up front is that you can get ready for a big mountain race living at 3 feet sea-level.  You can partially replicate the physical aspect of these races by doing some of the things I have described.  The biggest challenge is getting the training balance right and not overdoing it.   The anxiety of not being able to train in the mountains is a big deal and undoubtedly drove me to this.   You cannot replicate is the technical nature of the terrain and obviously training trips to the mountains are optimal. We did this a lot to prepare for Georgia Death Race and Quest for the Crest, both exceedingly rugged and steep courses.  The combination of this and the lines of effort I laid out in this article will set anyone seeking to do these events while living in the flat lands up for success.  If it can be done by a 60 year old guy living in Manteo, anyone can do it!